Testing new ideas and painting Monet’s boat.

Every so often I come across a new idea which in principal will make both life and plein air painting simpler. Recently I came across two ideas and so decided to give them a trial run in the studio to see if I liked them and how easy they would be to transfer to the great outdoors. Here’s what I discovered (and what I painted!).

Idea 1: keeping oil paints fresh

I thought this was a great little idea – until I tried it! I’d seen someone putting their oil paints into those little plastic containers you get for pills, thus keeping your palette cleaner, keeping the paint wetter and fresher, and having less to take with you on a painting trip.

However, I found the paint quite tricky to access with a brush from these little pots. It all soon became quite fussy, the paint blobs became contaminated with other colours as I dipped the brush into them, and some colours ran out faster than others and so would need to be refilled with a tube anyway. So, I’m not really sure of the value of this. I don’t think I would save any paint, and I would still need to carry tubes with me.

Not great.

Idea 2: painting on oil paper instead of boards

I came across this idea watching this video by Patrick Okrasinski. He travelled through Europe and painted on paper instead of panels as they took up less room in his case and weighed less. Great idea, I thought. However, as I soon found out, painting on paper is not quite as straightforward as painting on gessoed panels.

I used oil/acrylic paper from an Arches 140lb block that I had bought years ago. It said you could use it just as it was and so I did, fixing it to a board with four tiny clips. My inspiration was a photo I took in Monet’s gardens in Giverney, France. I’d seen his boats (well, they looked very much like his boats!) moored up in one of the ponds there and I thought they would make a good subject, along with all that green vegetation and the reflections in the water.

But as soon as I began to paint in my usual way, starting with a thinned dark purple for the drawing, I realised I was in trouble. The paint just didn’t act the same way. It sunk straight into the paper and refused to flow.

scrubbing in paint

more scrubbing in…

I scrubbed in more, then more. The paint seemed to simply disappear into the thirsty paper. It was only when the whole surface had been covered that the oil paint began to sit there and behave. Finally I was able to complete the painting, but it had felt like a struggle.

finally to the block in

Monet’s boats 9″ x 12″ oil on paper

The conclusion…

On the first count, I don’t think I’ll be using the pill containers. For the paper – well, I still think it is a good lightweight option for plein air, so I’m going to try two things which may help. 1. I’ve gessoed some of my Arches paper so we’ll see if that helps the paint flow better and not sink in. 2. I’m going to buy some Canson paper (recommended by Patrick Okrasinski), to see if that is any better. I’ll let you know!

Paintings for sale

Just to let you know that I am putting some of my paintings up for sale on this website, especially the ones I have featured in my blogposts, including this one. So keep an eye out for them and get in quick if there is anything you would like to purchase. I’ll send to anywhere in the world 🙂

I’d love to read your comments if you have tried either of these things above (pill boxes or paper) or if you have any other handy tools or materials which you use for your painting. And please also click below if you have found this content interesting.

#Monet #oilpainting #oilpaper